10 Tips to Keep Your Files Safe from Ransomware | Total Security

Ransomware is becoming more and more dangerous - here are some simple but very effective tips to protect you from the malicious programs that are extortionate.

Ransomware has become one of the most notorious cyber threats in the past few years. As soon as a ransomware Trojan penetrates a system, it secretly encrypts files - including important documents, videos, and photos. This happens in the background so that the victim does not notice anything at first.

After doing its malicious work, the Trojan informs the victim that the files have been encrypted. In order to be able to use the files again, the user has to pay a ransom, which is usually a few hundred dollars and is to be paid in bitcoins. Many ransomware victims have little technological background, so they have to find out what bitcoins are and how to make the payment in the first place.

Also, what makes ransomware so nasty is the fact that the encrypted files are still stored on the victim's computer. A very sad and frustrating fact - the files are there but cannot be opened without the decryption key.

As ransomware is becoming a bigger problem, users should protect themselves against it and prevent infection. After all, it is much more complicated to deal with the consequences of a ransomware infection than to take care of the appropriate protection beforehand.

Here are 10 simple tips you can use to protect your data from ransomware:

• Back up all of your important files on a regular basis . We recommend that you make two backup copies of all files: One that is saved in the cloud (e.g. for services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) and one on its own storage device (removable hard drive, USB stick, extra As soon as your backup copies have been made, you should set special restrictions on the files: Your "Plan-B device" should only have read / write permissions so that files cannot be modified or deleted. Your backup copies can help you with all sorts of problems, including accidental deletion of important files or a hard drive failure.

• Regularly check the integrity of the backup copies. Occasionally, malfunctions can damage these files as well.

• Cyber ​​criminals often distribute fake emails , similar to online store or online bank notifications, to trick users into clicking malicious links or distributing malicious programs. This is called phishing . But with this knowledge you can adjust your antispam settings accordingly. In addition, you should never open attachments from unknown senders.
• Don't trust anyone. Malicious links can also come from friends on social networks, your colleagues or partners playing online games if their accounts have been hacked.

• Activate the function "Show file extensions" in the Windows settings. This makes it easier to identify potentially harmful files. Since Trojans are just programs, you should always be careful with file extensions such as “exe”, “vbs” and “scr” in e-mails or messages. You should also be careful, as many known file extensions can also be dangerous . Cyber ​​criminals often use multiple extensions to disguise malicious files as videos, photos or documents (for example hot-chics.avi.exe or report.doc.scr). Regularly update your operating system, browser, antivirus software, and any other installed programs. Cyber ​​criminals like to abuse security holes in these programs to break into computers.

• Use reliable antivirus software to protect your devices from ransomware. We recommend Protegent Total Security, which blocks all types of malware and, in the event of infection, protects all important files with a special function .

• If you discover a wrong or unknown process on your computer, you should cut off the Internet connection immediately. Because if ransomware has not yet deleted the decryption key on the computer, you still have the chance to be able to restore your files. However, new types of ransomware also use predefined keys, so this may not work.

• If you are the unfortunate person whose files have been encrypted, you shouldn't pay the ransom unless you need instant access to certain files. But every payment only reinforces the perpetrators in their illegal business.
• If you have been infected by ransomware, you should try to find out the name of the malware: if it is an older version, it is relatively easy to restore your files yourself. Older ransomware is not yet as sophisticated, and police authorities and security experts are working together to catch the perpetrators and make appropriate recovery tools available on the Internet. This may give you the opportunity to get your encrypted data back without paying a ransom.